海地前总统杜华利埃病逝

 

Duvalier was just 19 when in 1971 he inherited the title of "president-for-life" from his father, the notorious Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier.

 

He was accused of corruption², human rights abuses and repression³ in his rule, which ended in a 1986 uprising.

 

After years of exile in France, he returned to Haiti in 2011. 

 

His death was announced by Haiti's health minister, and the ex-leader's attorney Reynold Georges confirmed he died at home on Saturday.

 

 

At the time of his swearing in, Jean-Claude Duvalier was the youngest president in the world.

 

Initially⁵ it seemed that there could be a significant move away from his father's harsh regime, underpinned⁶ as it was by Haiti's notorious secret police, the Tontons Macoutes, says BBC world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge.

 

He moved closer to the Americans, from whom his father had been estranged⁷. US businesses moved in and he allowed limited press freedom.

 

But Jean-Claude Duvalier lived lavishly⁸. His state-sponsored wedding reportedly cost $5m in 1980, while most of the people in his ravaged⁹ nation endured the worst poverty in the Western hemisphere.

 

Repression continued, too, and amid massive unrest in 1986 he fled to France. 

 

Human rights groups say thousands of political prisoners were tortured or killed under his rule, and he was accused of massive corruption.

 

He described his return to Haiti - a year after it was devastated¹⁰ by a major earthquake, as a gesture of solidarity¹¹ to the nation.

 

But he was arrested and charged, and although released he finally appeared in court in February 2013, where in an emotionally-charged hearing in front of some of his alleged¹² victims, he denied responsibility for abuses carried out during his time as president.

 

Judges ruled he could face crimes against humanity charges, but the case had stalled some time before he died.

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